Monthly Archives: June 2012

Today’s Brilliance from Brycen R. R. Couture

The first and most obvious thing is that love is the single element that can heal the world. Most people aren't sure where to put the love, how to cultivate it or how to feel it. Allow me to tell you: You need to start by loving your children. If you give unconditional and total love, nurture and meet the needs of your kids, then they are going to grow up and pass that on to their kids. The children of today are the entire population of the future world. If everyone treated their kids with total unconditional love and…

Read more

Harvesting Happiness: How Your Natural Skills Will Get The Right Job Done

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. When I participated in my first career day, I was barely old enough to walk to the bus stop by myself. What does a fourth grader know about a career? Very little, but boy, did we try to dream up big goals. Clustered in my elementary school's tiny library, my classmates and I were each on a mission to find the perfect careers to compliment our strengths. Doctor was a popular pick for the science geeks. There were many future firefighters and presidents in the room, mostly among the classmates who were natural leaders. The more…

Read more

A Gratitude List

I'm in a unique and special free-writing group. Our rules are quite simple. We follow Natalie Goldberg’s practice of doing timed writings. I bring in prompts, which are sentence starts like the ones in my book. One woman reads one, while another woman sets a timer. When it goes off, we go around the circle, reading what we wrote. We don’t comment. Sometimes we respond to each other’s writings during the next round of writing, offering sympathy, understanding, and occasionally offering advice, if it is requested. After eight years, I think of these women as my writing sisters. We’ve seen…

Read more

Mindful Communications

By Sheevaun Moran. Most days we walk through the day without much thought about how we will communicate. We speak to our family in the same old way. Our chatter with the store clerks is fleeting. The emails we send are filled with our wants, needs, desires and demands. Where is the communication that is filled with goodness and intention? We say our intention is to communicate with love and kindness, but is that really true? If that were so true then our own inner voices would be much kinder and loving. The thought towards someone who is homeless would…

Read more

Harvesting Happiness: Find Your Imperfectly Perfect Ideal

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. The word "perfection" sure gets thrown around a lot. "She's perfect;" "I've got the perfect fix;" "That's picture perfect." But who defines perfect, anyway, and what set of variables needs to magically align to achieve this so-called state of nirvana? The problem with perfection is that everyone has a different definition of it. My perfect day might be a bike ride through the city, during which I stop at every farmer’s market I come across. You could very well hate bikes and think farmer’s markets are boring. Another person we consult on this matter could respond…

Read more

Blackout

By B. Lynn Goodwin. "Hello. I'm calling from the Starbuck's on Camino Ramon in Danville," the young manager in the green apron said into her cell. "We're currently experiencing a blackout." I’d never been in a Starbuck’s without inside light. A clerk who sounded like a high school student told me the coffee was cold. She suggested I try another Starbuck’s but I decided to wait. I liked the natural light coming through the windows, and besides, I wanted to be a part of the adventure. It’s not every day a business grinds to a halt because the power is…

Read more

The Pain Is Real

By Penny Kane. It's hard for me to write this. The emotion that it stirs up even after all of these years is intense.  It’s real.  I want to share my story with other people who are grieving, whether it be from the loss of a baby, or the loss of the opportunity to conceive a baby because they are both devastating.  I have experienced pain on the loss side, and the complicated pregnancy side.  Pregnancy never came easy for me, and I always wondered if I was different, and what was wrong with me. The first loss that I…

Read more

Thanks For The Wings

By Gail Lynne Goodwin. How do you say goodbye to the man who taught you how to fly? When I was a toddler my dad would fly me through the air in his arms, pretending I was a bird. As a little girl he used to lie down on his back, stretch his legs towards the sky with me balanced on his feet and instantly, I was an airplane. I knew that I could fly anywhere with my dad, even if it was just in my imagination. As I grew older I realized what a gift this metaphor was in…

Read more

Harvesting Happiness: Your Happiness, Your Shoulders

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. We're surrounded by tons of personality types every day, and each person's company inspires a different emotion in us. One minute, we're working at a desk next to a coworker whose worrying makes the whole office tense; hours later, we're home with a family that lends security and joy. An erratic driver on our way to yoga class that same afternoon could make us forget all about the kindness of the friend we just grabbed lunch with. Amid these ever-changing circumstances that we call life, we can’t run the risk of relying on others to deliver…

Read more

Hope For Those Living With Cancer

By Kathi Casey. There is so much talk about people living with cancer these days. There isn't a person that I know who doesn’t have a loved one either undergoing cancer treatment or who has lost their battle… Today I’d like to share a story with you about a friend who got fed up and frustrated and simply HAD to do something to help.  He’s known as an “out of the box” thinker and he certainly used this gift to find a unique way to help those affected by cancer! About three years ago, Ned lost his best friend from…

Read more

Summer of 2012

By B. Lynn Goodwin. Memorial Day has come and gone. Families had picnics, went swimming, went boating, played ball, and ate too much potato salad and ice cream. Right? If that picture doesn’t match your day, you’re probably not alone. Some people had a front-row seat as the President lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Have you lost a family member in one of the wars? Do you honor him on Memorial Day or every day? Some people spent the day in a tollbooth or a ticket booth. Others stood behind the counter at 7-Eleven, or…

Read more

An Unexpected Find

By Charlene Potterbaum. About seven years ago, my son Don and his Significant Other were returning to Indiana after doing some Trade Shows in New York. While cruising on the Turnpike, they saw a huge sign telling of an Antiques Store a few miles off the toll road. Kathi suggested they turn off and check it out, as she loved buying specialties for her show rooms, and prowling around in the musty interiors that had so much to offer. So, once they stepped into the huge store, Kathi went one way, and my son Don's attention turned towards what looked…

Read more

The Meaning of Family

My parents were the glue that kept our extended family together. With children and grandchildren scattered across the country in 8 different states, it's always been a special occasion when we’re all together. This past weekend I spent time in Pennsylvania to attend a memorial service for my father who passed away a few weeks ago. Joined by my four siblings, our children and grandchildren, we sat together under a canopy at the gravesite where my father’s ashes were to be interred, alongside our mother who passed away less than a year ago. As part of a beautiful service, we…

Read more

Meditation in the Least Likely Places

By Sheevaun Moran. I just read an article about how Ohio almost passed a bill in 1969 to add 2 minute meditation periods in schools. What a shame that bill didn’t pass! I’ve been teaching meditation in 2 minutes for over 15 years and am still shocked at how “dissed” and what a bad rap the word meditation gets. Meditation is already everywhere and maybe it’s time to stop thinking that meditation is weird or mind manipulation. Maybe it’s time to bring this into the light and accept what already is! Let's talk about some meditation moments you’ve probably not thought of:…

Read more

Harvesting Happiness: Why You Should Mediate (Instead of Litigate) Your Life

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. We live in an increasingly litigious society. Your neighbor makes a little noise? Sue. Someone fails to pay you on time? Sue. You get in a car accident? Sue. The problem with this approach to life is that in an adversarial proceeding, no one wins. Even the technical winner of a protracted lawsuit has lost time, money, sleep and soul in the process. Of course, you don’t see that on TV. Television has glamourized lawsuits, cutting out the months and years an average lawsuit takes and instead going straight from the inception of a case to…

Read more

Have You Been Watching Your Thoughts Lately?

By Tara Taylor. Our thoughts are extremely powerful when it comes to manifesting an outcome that we may want in our lives. Have you been paying attention to your thoughts lately? Are you thinking about what you want rather than what you do not want? It's important to make a positive daily habit of watching where our thoughts go or where our minds start to wonder to. Our thoughts play a role in how we experience our daily lives and our interactions with others. When we choose thoughts that are loving, encouraging and forgiving about ourselves and others we find that…

Read more

Why Not: Seizing Opportunity When It Appears

I always had the sense that I would do something bigger than I could ever imagine with my life - what that was and how I would find it was always the mystery. I spent my life living by the motto "Everything happens for a reason". I took risks that most people would shy away from. And, when opportunities were presented I always asked myself "Why not?". If I could not come up with a valid reason, I always went for it all the while knowing that it would lead somewhere. By nature I am an adventurer, organizer, and brain-stormer…

Read more